Anxiety; College & Maintaining Your Sanity

Hello friends!

So, many of us are familiar with something that I call "academia-induced anxiety," which is basically when school stress attaches itself to your pre-existing anxiety. This is by route of grades that aren't up to your standards, homework that continues to pile up, and...really anything regarding higher education. As someone who has anxiety and is pursing higher education I know that EVERYTHING makes your life difficult and especially all at once. What I learned during this semester were methods to try not to self-destruct. So naturally, I wanted to share these methods! Below I am going to compose a list (pick and choose as you please of course) of activities, etc., to help you get through your journey with higher education. I absolutely hope that this will be helpful to you. Go forth and prosper!

Peace & Love,

Brittany❤

1. Self-Care Days

These are days that will contain activities that you normally can't do because of prior obligations. This can be days where you go to Lush and spend all of your money, go to a bakery and try three new things, discover a new part of your college town and get lost, go get pampered at a salon, go to a bookstore and buy new books even though you already own hundreds of them (guilty!), or you can literally just sit inside and do homework! The goal of self-care days are to give your brain a break and to help you relax in whichever way that is!

2. Mental Health Days

Your mental health is worth more than a degree. Sometimes you have to block the world and your studies out and just take a day to exhale. Don't hold your breath. My first semester of college was very difficult on my mental health so I found myself taking mental health days even though missing class isn't ideal. Think of it this way, you can't do well in your classes if your brain is shutting down. Blend your self-care day with your mental health day and start fresh the next day. You deserve to not feel like the world is falling. Don't feel bad about missing class when you feel like you can't handle it.

3. Unplugging

Now that everyone's in the digital age it is hard to limit the time that we spend behind our screens. Sometimes it can even influence our moods. Between social media and school affecting our moods it's hard to bring our brain back into a healthy head space. This method that I learned is unplugging. Take a couple days from your week or whenever you feel overwhelmed to put your phones on do not disturb, or airplane mode, or even turn it off and just focus on other things and find your center. Having a smartphone is a nice asset to have but a break every now and again is even nicer.

4. Do a food detox.

This is exactly what it sounds like and no I'm not asking you to randomly become vegan! This just simply means to limit your junk food, limit caffeinated drinks, stray away from simple sugars and fast food. Just one day of clean eating can make you feel a little better from the inside. Detoxing can be anything from those that I mentioned above to finding some teas that you want to try, grilling instead of frying, trying agave instead of white sugar, etc. The reverse of this, if you're already a healthy eater (go you!), would be to have some sugar! Have some ice cream not nicecream! PLEASE have some chocolate! Anyway in which you approach this method is up to you!

5. This last method is..you guessed it..retail therapy!

Retail therapy doesn't have to break the bank or go against your financial goals, it can be anything from participating in an online sale from a store that you rarely make purchases from, going to many thrift stores and even just going to buy things from your grocery list is retail therapy! You can buy a candle or a mason jar or five dresses, as long as you buy something to your hearts content you have succeeded with this step!

I hope that this short list helped!